Diane Paulus goes to the circus with 'Amaluna'

The Tony-winning director of the American Repertory Theater stretches her imagination through a collaboration with Cirque du Soleil.

By Dana BarbutoThe Patriot Ledger

Three-time Tony Award winner Diane Paulus, artistic director at the American Repertory Theater, never got the urge to run off to join the circus, but that’s exactly what she did as director of “Amaluna,” the newest Cirque du Soleil marvel to swing into Boston.

“I did run away with the circus on the creation of ‘Amaluna’ because it was such a holistic immersion into that world,” said an exuberant Paulus, who is thrilled to be back on home turf at the A.R.T.

Cirque du Soleil productions are a sweeping kaleidoscope of colorful costumes, phantasmagorical encounters, pulsing music and amazing feats of acrobatic skill and grace. And, despite being the woman in charge, Paulus never once dared take a swing on the trapeze or spin on a rope.

“As a director, what you do more than anything is live vicariously through everything that you’re creating, ” she said of her preference of watching over doing.

And if there’s one thing Paulus knows, it’s creativity. She’s as unique as Cirque, and taken together, the two entities redefine spectacle in “Amaluna,” running May 29 to July 6 under the blue-and-yellow big top at Boston Marine Industrial Park. The story is based loosely on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” but with a twist: Women rule the enchanted island.

“That’s not to say we don’t have incredible men, too,” Paulus said, laughing. “They wanted this show to be homage to women.”

Powerful women are smack in Paulus’ wheelhouse. She’s a visionary, known for challenging tradition and reinventing theater. Her three Tonys (for revivals of “Hair,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Pippin”) speak to that, as does her long-running “The Donkey Show,” a disco adaptation of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ co-created with her husband, Randy Weiner.

She said helming “Amaluna” was a no-brainer.

“My brain would be stretched and my directing muscles would be stretched in new ways,” Paulus said during a chat in her office upstairs at the Loeb Drama Center.

Since its beginning 20 years ago in Montreal, Cirque du Soleil has been entertaining audiences worldwide with shows that are equal parts fantasy and athleticism. It began with street performers, and although it now recruits performers from around the globe, it remains true to its origins. It is theater of the imagination, a sound and light show performed under a big top. That was all the impetus Paulus needed.

“The idea that I brought to the table was: ‘Let’s not make a show that’s about women. Let’s make a great piece of theater. Let’s make a great show, period,’” she said. “And by great show, I mean thrilling acrobatics, beautiful artistry and let’s have a story, of course, hidden, because this is a Cirque show and not a play.”

The marriage of story and spectacle is what Paulus does best. She said she draws her inspiration from famed choreographer George Balanchine.

“There’s not a word of dialogue in those great story ballets, but you’re following characters, you’re following action,” she said. “There’s a rhythm and flow to the evening. We went into great detail with that process of storyboarding the show, not with lines and a script, per se, but with tableaus and images and characters.”

“Amaluna” is set on a mysterious island ruled by a wise woman. To craft the story, Paulus drew on such diverse inspirations as Greek mythology and Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” to mash up with “The Tempest.”

“It is a story of a mother and daughter on an island in a community of women where this daughter is coming of age,” Paulus said. “And what this mother does is very much like Prospero in ‘The Tempest.’ She causes a storm, and these merry band of boys show up. And that represents the outside world coming onto the island. The young daughter falls in love with one of the men. And their love has to be tested and proven worthy.”

Paulus, 47, grew up in New York City as the daughter of parents who loved the arts. She studied piano and ballet. She went to Harvard to pursue politics, but her passion was theater. Next was graduate school at Columbia, where she studied acting.

“I didn’t have the patience to be an actor,” she said. “I worship at the feet of actors and everything that they do. I personally don’t have the stamina to be an actor, but I … have infinite energy for directing. I started directing plays in parks, classrooms, worked for free for years and just kept at it and kept at it.”

Before coming to the A.R.T. in 2008, Paulus staged her revival of “Hair” for the New York Public Theater. It played in Central Park and on Broadway. Her first full season in Cambridge was 2009-10.

“I sat in this office as an undergraduate and interviewed (then-A.R.T. artistic director) Bob Brustein for my senior thesis at Harvard. So it’s an amazing full circle,” Paulus said.

In April, Time magazine named Paulus to the “2014 Time 100,” its annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people. She said she was honored and “excited that the theater made the list,” but was more nervous about the ensuing gala than she ever was at the Tonys.

“The Tonys are theater, I knew everybody,” she said. “Those are my people. ... Going to the Time gala was like going to the White House.”

Her job with Cirque will wrap soon, but Paulus hasn’t left the circus behind. Her award-winning “Pippin,” which is still on Broadway, is set in a circus environment.

“We had done our very first reading of ‘Pippin’ when ‘Amaluna’ started,” Paulus said. “‘Pippin’ went on hold and I went to do ‘Amaluna.’ I was sort of initiated into the world of the circus.”

And she never left.

Paulus and her husband, also a Harvard graduate, and their two daughters, ages 7 and 9, navigate the circus act of living in both Boston and New York. That includes keeping track of which baseball team to support.

“I have both hats, let’s leave it at that,” Paulus said of her loyalties to the Yankees and Red Sox. “And it’s terrible to wear the wrong hat in the wrong city.”